FIG. 1 illustrates a basic computer system in which a host computer (100) is connected to a printer (101). As is commonly known, the computer (100) can execute a vast variety of different application programs. Most application programs are designed to allow the user of the computer to handle particular tasks. For example, a word processing application provides the user with the tools to draft and edit written documents. A spreadsheet application allows a user to easily produce financial reports. Graphics or Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications allow a user to generate and manipulate pictures, drawings or plans.
The host computer (100) typically includes a monitor (104). The monitor (104) is used to interface with the user by displaying the output of the application the user is working with. User input devices, such as a keyboard and mouse (105) are used to allow the user to input or manipulated data being processed by the application running on the host computer (100). In this way, the user can create the desired result, be it a document, graphic, etc.
Frequently, after a user has generated a document, graphic or other work using the host computer (100), the user will want to generate a hard copy of the work for his or her records or to pass on to someone else for their review. For this purpose, a printer or printing device (101) may be connected to the host computer (100). As user herein, the term “printer” or “printing device” refers broadly to any device that may receive data from a computer or computerized system for the purpose of generating a hard copy rendering of the incoming data.
When the user has completed a work on the host computer (100) that is to be printed, the user typically enters a print command to the application with which the work was generated. The application then calls another program on the host (100) known as a printer driver. The application passes the data of the work to be printed to the printer driver. This data then becomes a print job.
The printer driver formats the data to be received by the printer (101) and rendered by the printer (101) in hard copy form. The printer driver then passes the formatted print job data over a connection (103) to the printer (101). The connection (103) may be a direct serial or parallel connection. Alternatively, the connection (103) may be a network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), to which both the host computer (100) and the printer (101) are connected.
The printer driver, in addition to formatting the print job for the printer (101), may also allow the user to control some characteristics of the print job. A user interface to the printer driver may be provided on the host computer (100) through which the user can specify, for example, the size of paper on which the print job is printed, whether the print job has a portrait or landscape orientation, whether the print job should be in color or gray scale, etc.
Through the printer driver, the user may also be able to specify the print quality of the print job. For example, if it is important that the resulting hard copy look good, the user may specify a high print quality. This will typically require more toner or ink from the printer (101) and take longer to generate the printed document. However, if it is not important that the print job has a high print quality, the user can specify a lower print quality using the printer driver. In this way, toner will be conserved and the resulting document can typically be printed more quickly.
A problem arises, however, if there are elements in the document that need a high print quality to look satisfactory and other elements that do not. For example, if a document includes both text and photographs, the text may not require a high print quality to be entirely legible and otherwise appear as desired. However, the photographs may not look sharp and satisfactory unless printed with a high print quality. In order to have the photographs appear as desired, the user will have to set the print job to run at a high print quality. The photographs will be satisfactorily printed, as will the accompanying text, but the accompanying text will require more toner and time to print that is necessary for a satisfactory product.
Consequently, there is a need in the art for a system and method that allow a user to generate printed documents in the most toner- and time-efficient manner, even if the print job contains elements that have different print quality requirements for a satisfactory appearance.